Native plants · Texas
Native plants of Hale County
57 plant species are recorded as native to Texas in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in Hale County by USDA PLANTS. 24 of them have growing records you can filter by light, moisture, height and estimated cold hardiness.
County summary · USDA PLANTS and Kew WCVP
Hale County, Texas
PLANTS records only 24 garden-ready natives here (under 30). County records are thin in some places; the Texas list is a useful second check.
- Native species
- 57 Typical Texas county: 145 (median of 254 counties)
- Garden-ready natives
- 24 Typical Texas county: 61
- Share by type (all 57 native species)
-
Percent of the 57 native species in each growth type
Wildflowers make up the largest share of the native list (53%), followed by grasses and grass-like plants (39%).
The native plant list
Garden-ready natives 24
Native species with PLANTS growing records (height, light, moisture, minimum temperature). “—” means PLANTS has no value.
| Plant | Type | Height | Light | Water use | Hardy to |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| blue grama Bouteloua gracilis | Grass or grass-like | 1 ft | Sun | Medium | Zone 3a |
| buffalograss Bouteloua dactyloides | Grass or grass-like | 6 in | Sun | Medium | Zone 3b |
| Canada wildrye Elymus canadensis | Grass or grass-like | 3 ft | Shade-tolerant | Medium | Zone 3a |
| Canadian horseweed Conyza canadensis | Wildflower (forb) | 5 ft | Sun | Medium | Zone 12b |
| common spikerush Eleocharis palustris | Grass or grass-like | 1.3 ft | Sun | High | Zone 3b |
| disk waterhyssop Bacopa rotundifolia | Wildflower (forb) | 1 in | Sun | High | Zone 4a |
| eastern redbud Cercis canadensis | Tree | 30 ft | Shade-tolerant | Low | Zone 4b |
| golden tickseed Coreopsis tinctoria | Wildflower (forb) | 3 ft | Sun–part shade | High | Zone 12b |
| hardstem bulrush Schoenoplectus acutus | Grass or grass-like | 9.8 ft | Sun | High | Zone 3b |
| knotgrass Paspalum distichum | Grass or grass-like | 11 in | Sun | High | Zone 6a |
| Malabar sprangletop Leptochloa fusca | Grass or grass-like | 3.3 ft | Sun | High | Zone 3a |
| needle spikerush Eleocharis acicularis | Grass or grass-like | 8 in | Sun | Medium | Zone 5a |
| Pennsylvania smartweed Polygonum pensylvanicum | Wildflower (forb) | 3.9 ft | Sun | Medium | Zone 10b |
| sago pondweed Stuckenia pectinata | Wildflower (forb) | — | Sun | High | Zone 3b |
| sand dropseed Sporobolus cryptandrus | Grass or grass-like | 3 ft | Sun | Low | Zone 3b |
| sideoats grama Bouteloua curtipendula | Grass or grass-like | 3 ft | Sun | Medium | Zone 3a |
| spreading yellowcress Rorippa sinuata | Wildflower (forb) | 1 ft | Sun | Medium | Zone 3b |
| squirreltail Elymus elymoides | Grass or grass-like | 1.5 ft | Sun | Low | Zone 3a |
| tobosagrass Pleuraphis mutica | Grass or grass-like | 2.3 ft | Sun | Low | Zone 7b |
| upright prairie coneflower Ratibida columnifera | Wildflower (forb) | 3.1 ft | Sun | Medium | Zone 3a |
| valley redstem Ammannia coccinea | Wildflower (forb) | 1.6 ft | Sun | Medium | Zone 3b |
| vine mesquite Panicum obtusum | Grass or grass-like | 2 ft | Sun–part shade | High | Zone 5a |
| western pearly everlasting Anaphalis margaritacea | Wildflower (forb) | 3 ft | Sun–part shade | Medium | Zone 3a |
| western wheatgrass Pascopyrum smithii | Grass or grass-like | 2 ft | Sun | Medium | Zone 3a |
No garden-ready natives match these filters. Try clearing one.
Other native species recorded here 33
PLANTS has no growing records for these, so light, moisture, height and zone filters cannot include them. Many are wild species seldom sold by nurseries.
Hidden while “Garden-ready only” is on.
- bigbract verbena Verbena bracteata
- blue mudplantain Heteranthera limosa
- buffalobur nightshade Solanum rostratum
- bushy knotweed Polygonum ramosissimum
- crowpoison Nothoscordum bivalve
- Engelmann's daisy Engelmannia peristenia
- feather fingergrass Chloris virgata
- hairy waterclover Marsilea vestita
- Hopi tea greenthread Thelesperma megapotamicum
- lacy tansyaster Machaeranthera pinnatifida
- Louisiana vetch Vicia ludoviciana
- mat sandbur Cenchrus longispinus
- matted sandmat Chamaesyce serpens
- mealy goosefoot Chenopodium incanum
- Missouri foxtail cactus Escobaria missouriensis
- pale spikerush Eleocharis macrostachya
- pitseed goosefoot Chenopodium berlandieri
- prairie cupgrass Eriochloa contracta
- purple spikerush Eleocharis atropurpurea
- ram's horn Proboscidea louisianica
- ribseed sandmat Chamaesyce glyptosperma
- sandhill amaranth Amaranthus arenicola
- scarlet beeblossom Oenothera suffrutescens
- silverleaf nightshade Solanum elaeagnifolium
- slimflower scurfpea Psoralidium tenuiflorum
- snow on the mountain Euphorbia marginata
- southern annual saltmarsh aster Symphyotrichum divaricatum
- spinystar Escobaria vivipara
- tufted lovegrass Eragrostis pectinacea
- tumble windmill grass Chloris verticillata
- wedgeleaf Phyla cuneifolia
- witchgrass Panicum capillare
- yellowseed false pimpernel Lindernia dubia
Compared with Texas
The typical county is the median of the 254 Texas counties with PLANTS county records; the statewide figure counts every species native anywhere in the state. More species is not better or worse: counties differ in size, habitat and how thoroughly they have been surveyed.
| Measure | Hale County | Typical county | Statewide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Native species | 57 | 145 | 1,683 |
| Garden-ready natives | 24 | 61 | 656 |
| Tree | 1 | — | 164 |
| Shrub | 2 | — | 90 |
| Wildflower (forb) | 30 | — | 877 |
| Grass or grass-like | 22 | — | 431 |
| Vine | 1 | — | 83 |
| Fern | 1 | — | 38 |
Neighboring counties
Counties that share a ZIP code with Hale County.
- Castro County, TX 30 garden-ready
- Crosby County, TX 39 garden-ready
- Floyd County, TX 33 garden-ready
- Lamb County, TX 43 garden-ready
- Lubbock County, TX 82 garden-ready
- Swisher County, TX 29 garden-ready
Source & data date
- Source
- USDA NRCS PLANTS Database: county distribution records, native status and plant characteristics. CC0 (public domain dedication, per the data.gov catalog record).
- Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP): native or introduced status by state. CC BY 3.0.
- USGS US-RIIS (ver. 2.0): species listed as introduced are excluded. CC0.
- Citation
- USDA, NRCS. 2026. The PLANTS Database (https://plants.usda.gov, 11/04/2026). National Plant Data Team, Greensboro, NC USA.
- Govaerts R. (ed.) (2026). WCVP: World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Data file dated 2026-06-04, http://sftp.kew.org/pub/data-repositories/WCVP/ (retrieved 2026-11-04). Paper: Govaerts R. et al. (2021) The World Checklist of Vascular Plants, a continuously updated resource for exploring global plant diversity. Scientific Data 8, 215.
- Data date
- Retrieved from PLANTS on November 4, 2026; WCVP data file dated June 4, 2026.
- Zones
- USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map (2023) ZIP table: PRISM Group, Oregon State University, https://prism.oregonstate.edu, accessed November 3, 2026. Plant zones on this site are our estimate, not the official map.
- Scope
- Hale County (county FIPS 48189), Texas. 57 native species from PLANTS county distribution records; garden-ready = species with a PLANTS characteristics record.
- Method
- A species is listed when it is recorded as native to the state in Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants and USDA PLANTS, and recorded in the county by USDA PLANTS. Species PLANTS labels both native and introduced are listed separately. Full method · All sources